Forgive us, please, if we have a little trouble taking seriously a company that calls itself the Bad Boys of Dance. Sure, the name likely is meant to convey a sense of adventurousness and danger, but just how transgressive are ballet-trained performers on a proscenium stage going to get? Do they spit on front-row patrons? Run dogfights in their off hours? Take their foil-wrapped pot stash to the airport? The New York Times, noting the group's light and cheeky approach, called it "the dance equivalent of a water-bomb gang."

Company founder Rasta Thomas -- a former child prodigy who has danced with the Kirov Ballet, the Joffrey Ballet, American Ballet Theater and as the lead in the Twyla Tharp/Billy Joel musical "Movin' Out" -- told the New Jersey Star Ledger, "I was labeled a bad boy early on for not sticking to the traditional path and working my way up from apprentice to corps to soloist, first-soloist and principal." Rebellion's always relative, apparently.

Luckily, Thomas and his crew have the technique, athleticism and versatility to pull off his real prank: a spirited rejection of category, reflected in the Bad Boys fluid mix of ballet, Broadway, hip-hop, martial arts and other movement styles, and in choices of accompanying music that range from Maria Callas to Michael Jackson. It's a way of celebrating a male quality in dance (though Thomas' wife, Adrienne Canterna-Thomas, makes guest appearances and choreographed the second act), not with the overt satire of Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, but with a devil-may-care energy and attitude. After all, sometimes seriousness is beside the point.